One Day
by Special Agent Tee-vah
Summary: She realizes, it's almost been exactly six months. It's time to let go. Sequel to 6 Months!


**Okay, so I know I was meant to upload this on Wednesday, but I have finals starting on Monday and I had to finish my notes and stuff ): Sorry! But anyways, here's the sequel, and I hope you like it!**

* * *

Six months.

She had given him six months to find her.

It had been five months, and thirty days.

One day left.

Don't think even for a second that she didn't remember; it was all that was on her mind. Every passing day, she counts down.

Now she's down to one.

24 hours from now, she would have to let go of Tony DiNozzo.

She always held onto that small sliver of hope, hope that he would actually find her.

Ignoring the fact that she was hiding in her old family home, hidden away in an area of Tel Aviv that almost no one knew about.

Thank god for the secrecy of Eli David, right?

* * *

She's standing in the middle of the orchard, when she realizes she's literally moments away. There's no way she could ever forget the moment she made that deal. She realizes, it's almost been exactly six months.

It's time to let go.

Three…

Two…

"_You told me six months, Ziva. I'm not letting go_."

* * *

She freezes; it's not possible. This can't be happening.

There's no way.

_How?_

She presses a hand to her temples, her other arm wrapped around herself. She's hallucinating. It's been too long since she's seen them or heard them.

She shakes her head slightly, as if to clear her mind. She begins to walk forward, heading back in. She needs to rest.

"_Ziva."_

_No._

"You're not dreaming, David. I'm actually here. It's been six months. I'm here." Oh god, she's hearing footsteps now. _Come on Ziva, walk faster._

"Ziva David." Someone was holding onto her arm now.

_Wait._

She slowly turns, and she's shaking. She tilts her head up slightly, and she's staring into sparkling, green eyes.

"Tony," her voice is soft; she can't find her voice. He looks at her for a moment, and the next thing she knows, she's being crushed to his chest.

"_God, I found you_," he's choked up; he sounds slightly teary and his shoulders are shaking. She doesn't know how to react; as it is, she barely even believes that he's there. He slowly pulls away and looks at her, a look of utter and complete amazement in his eyes.

"How did you-"

"I wasn't kidding when I told you that I would find you. I found you when you were dead, and now, I can say that I found you even when you disappeared off the face of this planet," he winks at her, and all she can do is gape at him.

"You-"

"Yup."

"But-"

"Yup."

"How-"

"Damn it, Ziva, can't you just accept that I found you?"

No. No, no, no. This wasn't supposed to happen. It wasn't meant to be like this. She slowly shakes her head, stepping back.

"No, Tony. You have to go."

"I kept to our deal, Ziva. I found you within six months. You said, that if I found you within six months, we would decide where to go from there."

"No."

"Listen-"

"_You weren't meant to find me, Tony."_

"What?" for the first time in a while, he's rendered speechless.

"You have to let go. You have to go on. I can't go back, and I can't keep you here with me. I came here, to get away. To make sure that no one would be able to find me, especially you. You all need to carry on with your lives, DiNozzo. Don't let me get in the way of your happiness. I needed time to think, and you needed time to heal."

"I gave you six months to think, Ziva."

"No, Tony, you need to let go."

"I told you, I can't." she takes another step back, the tears now forming in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry." With that, she's about to turn and run, but not before he grabs onto her wrist and slips an envelope into her hand.

"I'll be around for the next week, if you change your mind." His voice is rough, and the grip on her wrist disappears.

By the time she gathers the courage to turn around, he's already gone.

* * *

She's sitting at her balcony, fingers playing around with the edges of the envelope, a penknife on the small table next to her in case she decides to open it. Her name is written on the front, an elegant mess of scribbled letters. Pressing the envelope, she suddenly realized that there was a small little lump on the inside, leaving an impression on the paper. Her eyebrows crease together, and she stares at the small crinkle in the paper. In that one moment of curiosity, all self-control is lost and she finds the penknife in her hand, ready to cut the envelope open. She can't bear to rip it open; this could very well be the last thing she has of him.

When she reads it, her throat goes dry and her eyes blur with tears.

_Hey, sweetcheeks._

_If you're reading this, then I guess…I guess I found you. God, I can't describe how much I've missed you. Six months without your presence, imagine how weird that is, after seeing you day after day for almost nine years straight. I have a few things to say to you, too._

_First of all, if I found you, and you're reading this, then it obviously means that six months have passed, I've found you, and I've kept to my part of the deal. I found you before the six months were over. Didn't expect that, did ya? I've kept to my promise, now it's your turn._

_Give it a chance, Ziva. You said, six months ago, that if I found you before the six months went by, we would take this in stride and see how it went. We've been through a lot together. I think this is worth the shot, don't you?_

_I couldn't live without you before. Six months haven't changed anything. No amount of time will change that._

_I guess Ziva, all I can say is that-_

_Well damn, I ran out of space to write. What I was going to say is, you're not alone. You have me. I guess this is my confession (sue me, Zee-vah, I'm not good with words). I don't know if you'd rather see it in writing, or hear me say it out. So let's go with both, shall we?_

_Ziva David, I love you._

_There we have it. That's all there is to it. The fact that I'm here, that has to stand for something, doesn't it?_

_If you're wondering how I found you, then I have two things for you. First of all, this place isn't exactly small. Secondly, you shouldn't have told Nettie._

_Think this over, alright, Ziva? As long as you're here, I'll fight for this. Give me this chance._

_By the way, happy belated birthday. I missed it, considering you went MIA. Hope you like it._

_At lo levad._

_Tony._

She's laughing softly, the tears spilling down her cheeks. She opens the envelope and looks in, and the tears fall quicker.

There's a small little necklace inside, with her old Star of David and a new one. There's a picture inside as well; the picture of her when they were in Paris. So many years later, he still has that picture. She turns back to the letter, and she can see the areas where his pen pressed harder into the paper. She can see the imprints in the paper, but no marks. Just the little dents all over the paper, giving her an idea of exactly how many times he tried writing this. She places down the letter, and picks up the two necklaces, one in each hand.

That's when she realizes; he's given her an ultimatum.

Stay in the past and hide in her fear, or move forward.

With him.

* * *

"Damn it, DiNozzo, answer your phone." The phone is ringing, but all she hears is a beep.

"_Hey, you've reached Tony DiNozzo, and unless-"_ she hangs up. Again. She knows how that dial tone ends.

It's 8 at night, and she's been trying to get to him for the last hour.

Actually, it's been an hour of her trying to gather up the courage to call him, and ultimately chickening out. There's no telling what his reaction would be, at this point. She picks up the phone again, and dials in his number once again. It's her new number, but odds are that he already knows that, seeing that he managed to track her down.

Once again, no answer.

"_Hey, you've reached Tony DiNozzo, and unless you're Ziva David, leave a- ow! Did you just kick me?!"_ his teasing, happy voice, is music to her ears.

"_Stop!"_ she can hear her own voice in the background, a lilting laugh.

"_Anyways, leave a message! You-"_ and that's where it cuts off, with the sound of her laughing at him tickling her.

It's her voice that astounds here. She sounds happy, blissful even. Like there was nothing wrong and that life was perfect. She's so caught up in her thoughts that it takes a few seconds for her mind to register that the beep already went off.

"Oh, um, hello, Tony. When you hear this- _if_ you hear this, could you call me back? I think we need to talk."

* * *

Less than ten minutes later, she gets a call, and she picks it up.

"Hello?"

"Is this…Ziva David?" She hears the heavy Israeli accent, and that's when she remembers that _right_, he's still in Tel Aviv.

"Yes, who is this?" For the first time ever, she's had a complete and total stranger pronounce her name properly.

"There's this man in front of me, drunk off his ass. He was mumbling to himself earlier, staring at his phone. Currently, he's seated on the sidewalk in front of me, a bottle in his hand, singing at the top of his lungs. I took his phone out of his hands and called the first person on his speed dial." She's not sure whether to laugh at his idiocy – she can hear him singing in the background – or whether to feel touched that even after all this time, she's the first person on his speed dial, new number or not.

"Where are you?" she gets up, takes down the address given, hangs up and runs to her car.

* * *

"Tony? Tony!" she sees him seated on the floor, leaning against the wall, hiccupping and laughing. There's a man standing next to him, with a flat look on his face. She approaches them, and the man straightens up, and looks at her curiously.

"Are you Ziva?"

"Yes. Sorry about this." He laughs, shaking his head.

"It's fine, I've dealt with this before. I'm Levi." She shakes his hand, and at that moment, Tony looks up with her with shining eyes.

"Ziva! You're here!" he stumbles when he tries to get up, and gives her a sloppy hug.

"Okay, come on, let's go. Thanks, Levi," she smiles at him and lugs the intoxicated man to her car, and straps him in.

"Thanks for this, Ziva." He's slurring, and his voice grows softer with each word.

"That's what partners are for, right?" even in his inebriated state, he brightens up at her words, ever so slightly.

"You know Ziva, I-" and at that, he drifts off to sleep, leaving her to wonder _what the hell_ he was going to say.

When they get back to her place, she drags him to her room and he collapses onto the bed. Groaning, she re-adjusts him, wondering what she did to make her deserve this. She changes into a tank top and sweats, and starts arranging her drawer, when he starts to shift about.

'Ziva?" he stirs, blinking, his eyes bleary.

"Hi," she smiles, "Just go back to sleep. You're going to feel like hell tomorrow morning." She starts to turn and head out of her room, when he reaches out and grabs onto her arm.

"No. Stay." And with that, he pulls her in next to him, and hugs her close, making her his human bolster.

There's nothing she can do at this point, except roll her eyes, relax, and let sleep take over.

* * *

When she wakes up, he's still soundly asleep. Prying herself out of his arms, she sneaks off to the kitchen, grabs an aspirin and a glass of water, and brings it back to her room, placing it on the top of the drawers by that side of the bed, leaving him to rest.

* * *

When he wakes up, the bed is empty, but there's a human-sized dent in the other half.

_Where the hell-?_ He looks around, and there's nothing familiar in the room he's in. His head is pounding, and he picks up the aspirin on the small table on his right and downs it, ignoring the glass of water. Groaning, he climbs out of bed and walks out of the room, and follows the smell of food straight to the kitchen.

The last thing he ever expected to see, was Ziva David standing there, making breakfast.

"What-"

"Oh, you're up! Good morning, Tony. Breakfast?" she smiles at him and offers him a plate.

He's staring at her, and he knows that something's different. He's inspecting her, scrutinizing her for anything. It's when his gaze falls down to her neck, that he laughs, and she winks at him cheekily. He walks up to her and pulls her close, dusting a feather-light kiss onto her lips, before pulling away.

"You're wearing the necklace I gave you," he murmurs, stroking her cheek. She smiles, and wraps her arms around his neck, closing the gap between them once again.

In that moment, everything is perfect, and she feels blissful once more.

* * *

**So…this was the sequel to 6 Months, and I hope it lived up to expectations! So leave a review? I'd love to hear the feedback (:**

**OH and I have finals starting next Monday, and they end the Tuesday after. I'm uploading this now because I needed to finish it or I'd waste time next week trying to. Writing's my way of relieving stress, so you'll either see more stories from me next week, or none at all, depending on the amount of work I have ): But anyway yeah! See you guys! (:**

**xx**

**Manda**


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